At the Polmadie Traincare Centre in Glasgow, energy solutions and transport company Alstom required a new heating system to replace a costly and ineffective oil-fired system.
Europe’s leading manufacturer of gas-fired radiant heaters, AmbiRad, supplied a 61 burner Nor-Ray-Vac system and SmartCom controls to save energy, money and provide a perfect environment for crucial train maintenance.
Originally built in 1879, Polmadie is one of Alstom’s five West Coast Main Line Traincare Centres. For the installation it was vital that this critical depot could continue to service Alstom-built Pendolino trains. With a carefully coordinated design and installation process, specialist contractor Gradwood Limited worked closely with AmbiRad to develop a value engineered heating solution for the 10,000m2 maintenance shed.
In total, Gradwood installed 61 x Nor-Ray-Vac burners, 2 x AmbiRad VISION unit heaters and 2 x UDSA warm air heaters in 14 separate zones across the building’s primary maintenance area. The AmbiRad SmartCom3 controller was incorporated into the specification to allow the heating to be controlled accurately. A specialised microprocessor, SmartCom lets the user control heating provision precisely, ensuring that the depot can be flexibly heated to meet the occupants’ specific needs.
Mounted approximately 7 metres high throughout the building, the Nor-Ray-Vac system will ensure the maintenance shed provides a comfortable and warm place to work. Its radiant tubes use infra-red rays like the sun, heating people and objects rather than the space itself.
Whilst overcoming the logistical challenges of installing a heating system in an operational maintenance shed, Gradwood also laid a quarter of a mile of MDPE (medium-density polyethylene) underground gas mains beneath the tracks to take gas to the main depot.
With large, constantly open doors, train maintenance sheds are notoriously difficult to heat and even more difficult to keep warm. The installation of the comprehensive Nor-Ray-Vac system will also avoid the significant wasted energy associated with heating vast internal spaces suffering from fluctuating temperatures – perfect for contemporary rail sheds.
Owing to its excellent energy efficiency, the Nor-Ray-Vac system is on the Energy Technology list and qualifies for Enhanced Capital Allowance. This allows organisations to off-set the cost of their eco-friendly investments against taxable profits during the investment period. Reducing the payback period of the heating system to less than three years, the depot will benefit from even greater operational savings.
Replacing an old, ineffective and expensive oil-fired heating system, Alstom, Gradwood and AmbiRad collaborated to meet the complex challenges of heating a rail maintenance depot – delivering an energy efficient and cost effective climate control system that will save the client money and energy for many years to come.
